Comics and infographics – Drawing as a journalistic language

Malofiej 2002: From time to time you meet people, whose work you like instantly. This was such a time for me.
When I saw the drawings Fernando is capable of doing, I was totally convinced. This was really something special.

The best part of it all is that Fernando is working not only as an infographic artist, but rather as a visual journalist. As an example he had been to Kosovo to draw sketches of the soldiers, their equipment and the places they patrolled. These sketches later turned invaluable, whenever his paper wanted to do graphics of anything Balkanesque.

Fernando also uses his drawing talent to do actual comics, and he has released several albums.
During his session, Fernando came up with several points to think about:
1. There are too few human characters present in the infographics today.
2. How come people in infographics never move, and why do they have to look like plastic-people?.
3. Don’t use 3D-programs, (such as Poser) as a substitution for actual drawings.

– And a few points on how to work in the newsroom:
A. Draw an early sketch just to calm the editorial people down. Then they have something to relate to.
B. Get the journalists to draw a rough sketch (even if they will claim they can’t draw) and fax it to you, before you talk on the phone about locations etc .

And lastly: Have fun with what you’re doing. – I’ll take that advice

(This article was first published in 2002 in the former version of VisualJournalism.com)